(1) Field of the Invention
The invention pertains generally to hospitality media and entertainment systems. More specifically, the invention relates to operating a hospitality media system from a mobile device.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In order to meet guest expectations, hotels must provide increasingly sophisticated media entertainment systems. However, the increased sophistication inevitably results in increased complexity, and thus the systems become “scary” to new users who may be unfamiliar with the operation of many remotes and other equipment such as set-top boxes (STBs) and personal digital recorders (PVRs) that may be found in the rooms.
To solve this problem, hotel media systems are designed to be “user-friendly”. This generally means control elements such as menus and control buttons be as intuitive as possible such that a guest can easily figure out how to use the system without first having to read instructions. However, regardless of how user-friendly a system may actually be, it will still be regarded as new and therefore troublesome by a guest who is unfamiliar with the system but who needs to learn it in order to enjoy their stay. Also, because the hardware vendors for different hotels (even of the same hotel chain) may differ, the physical appearance and other control aspects of in-room media and entertainment systems may also differ from hotel to hotel. Therefore, even if each system is itself user-friendly, frequent travelers who stay at many hotels may need to learn many different media systems. The process of learning to use yet another hotel media system can detract from the overall guest experience.